Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
The US on Friday accused Hamas of misusing civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, to store weapons and carry out attacks against Israel.
Under international law, schools and hospitals must be zones of peace, where civilians are given protection even in times of conflict.
“Hamas continues, day in and day out, to put civilians in harm's way through their tactics and use of these facilities,” US deputy ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the Security Council, as ceasefire talks to end the Israel-Gaza war resumed in Qatar.
The US envoy urged council members to condemn Hamas for their actions and “call them out” for continuing to put Palestinian civilians in Gaza in the crosshairs. “Israel's fight is with Hamas and not the Palestinian civilians the terrorist group falsely purports to represent,” she added.
The Israeli army said on Friday that it had struck dozens of Hamas gathering points and command centres throughout Gaza over the past day. The UN Security Council convened for an emergency meeting at the request of Algeria to discuss Israel’s recent raid of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
Israel's military said it had killed more than 20 suspected militants and detained more than 240 people, including the hospital's director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya.
In a message to the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva said that the hospital had been used by Hamas for military purposes, and Israeli operations were conducted with utmost caution to minimise civilian casualties, based on credible intelligence.
Mr Turk highlighted the gravity of the claims, which if confirmed, would suggest serious breaches of international law by Palestinian armed groups. However, he noted the lack of detailed evidence from Israel to back these claims.
“In some cases, they appear to be contradicted by publicly available information,” Mr Turk said. A report published on Tuesday by the UN Human Rights Office said “insufficient information” has been made available to substantiate Israeli accusations of military use of hospitals.
Tanya Haj Hassan, a doctor working in Gaza, joined via video call during the Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York. She told the Security Council that Israel’s crimes are “beyond brutal”.
“No one is stopping Israel. They do whatever they want without any consequences. There's no such thing as international law or the law only applies to certain parts of the world, and not to us,” she said.
Israel's military has regularly accused Hamas of using hospitals as command centres, which the militant group denies. The Israeli army has conducted intense raids in Gaza's north since October, saying it is an effort to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping there.
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
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Sector: FinTech
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Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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